Connectivity to networks that utilize Internet Protocols is widely available, and the opportunities for such connectivity continue to increase, in particular with introduction of more and more wireless access technologies. At any given time, a user of a communication terminal may be able to use several different methods to access an IP-network, for example UMTS, wireless LAN (WLAN), Bluetooth, infrared IrDA or fixed Ethernet.
The number of available access methods may remain constant if the user's communication terminal is stationary, whereas the number of available access methods could change with physical movement of the communication terminal from one location to another.
Access methods such as the examples given above can differ in many aspects, for example, bandwidth, latency, reliability, power consumption, coverage, packet loss and prices for usage. As in shown in FIG. 1A, in IP-communications, two applications use lower layer transport services for communicating, accessed via so called ‘sockets’. The requirement on the transport from one application to another can vary considerably, and may depend on e.g. user expectations, size of data to be transported, format of data to be transported, etc.
Given a situation where the provided transport service available via sockets varies a lot, as discussed above, it follows that mapping of application flows onto lower layer services can be important, as well as management of changes in the available transport.
It is therefore desirable to provide for prudent utilization of the transport, in particular access, services available for supporting communication between two IP- end-points.
The present invention provides for a communication terminal to perform IP-based communications using multiple access methods concurrently for respective packet flows of one or more communicating applications, including managing changes in available transport capabilities, e.g. due to mobility. In exemplary embodiments, The invention allows for: simultaneous mapping of information flows in up- and down link, onto one or several tunnels, which may be associated to a link interface or to a bearer on a link interface, considering requirements of flow and capabilities and characteristics of the tunnel; management of link change due to, but not limited to, movement of the terminal, the management mechanism providing support for remapping flow(s) onto another tunnel (interface or transport channel) in up- and down link and provisioning of information about the change to higher layers and/or the user about the change; framework for adaptation of information flows which may be necessary in conjunction with remapping of flows due to link change; analysis of information flows to implicitly determine optimal access utilization and possibly rearrangement of information flow structure, to allow for split over different tunnels; interaction between the user and application(s) generating information flows to be transported and the mechanisms described above, including but not limited to configuration files, policies, and method calls in API's for interaction in real time; interaction with lower layers to detect a need for rearranging the mapping of information flows; and a 3rd party influencing the mapping (placement and movement) of information flows via policies.